As the world steps in to the Holiday season, preparing for Christmas and New Year, iPhone app developers are busy submitting their apps on the app store before it shuts down. The Apple app store will shut down from this Thursday and will reopen after 8 days. During the shutdown, iPhone users would be able to download apps but iPhone app developers will not be able to submit any new app in the store.

App developers are not only intending to submit their applications on the store but are also trying to get their apps on the top 25 lists before app store closes for the Holidays. The top 25 list is where most of the users start their shopping from and is generally used as a benchmark for the popularity of app. Moreover, the app store freezes it ranking before shutting down. So apps on the list will continue to occupy their position in the period.

Many iPhone developers therefore try to get to the top of the list and then bring the prices down so as to leverage from the Holiday shopping mood. The Holiday season sees significant increase in app downloads as people download applications for Christmas, Holiday greetings, travel, hotel search etc. There are already reports of increased sales in iPhone this season.

It would be interesting to see download figures in app store for the holidays, this year.

Apple has released a second beta of iOS 5.1 with build 9B5127c for iPad and iPhone app developers, with the latest update enabling deletion of pics synced to the iCloud Photo Stream. The second beta version is now available to subscribers of the iOS developer program.

One of the major updates in the latest beta is the ability to automatically delete photos from Photo Stream when they are deleted on the iPhone by a user. Currently, if a picture is deleted from the iPhone then it is not removed from the iCloud.

The second beta version of iOS 5.1 beta is compatible with the Apple’s iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 2, iPad, and third- and fourth-generation iPod touch.

Apple has released the first beta of iOS 5.1 to iPad and iPhone app developers in late November.

Apple has released iOS 5.1 Beta and Xcode 4.3 for iPad and iPhone app developers. The latest iOS SDK 5.1 provides support for developing applications for iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone and includes the complete set of Xcode tools, compilers, and frameworks including the Xcode IDE and the Instruments analysis tool.

The iOS 5.1 beta will allow iPad and iPhone app developers to build apps for Apple devices running iOS 5.1. App developers can also test their newly-built application using the included iOS simulator in the software.

What has attracted attention of iPhone developers and experts is the reference of iPad 3, 3 and iPad 2, 4 on the Beta. There are also references to the hugely anticipated iPhone 5 which has been codenamed iPhone 5, 1 in the iOS 5.1 beta.

The references for iPhone 5 with recent rumors of Apple’s next iPhone having a 4 inches screen rather than 3.5 inches has further fueled expectations in the market.

iPad and iPhone app developers reign supreme in the smartphone application market. Not only in number of apps they develop and market but also in the revenue generated across. Accoding to a report by AppleInsider, Analyst Gene Munster with Piper Jaffray says that Google’s Android Market has generated around 7% of the gross revenue that Apple’s App Store has earned since its inception.

In a note to investors, Munster writes “In other words, it appears that Apple has roughly 85-90% market share in dollars spent on mobile applications. While Google has closed the gap in terms of app dollars spent over the last year and we continue to believe Android will grow smartphone share faster than Apple, we believe Apple is likely to maintain 70%+ share of mobile app dollars spent over the next 3-4 years.”

The estimates were drawn according to number publicly released by Cupertino based Apple and from Android app discovery tool, Androlib. According to Munster, $330 million has been raked in the Android Market with only 1.3% of the smartphone apps available being paid.

The estimates reached by Piper Jaffray come from numbers publicly revealed by Apple, as well as data from Androlib, an Android application discovery tool. The total app downloads in Android Market is said to be 6.75 billion app downloads to date, with 90 million of these being paid apps. In comparison, it is estimated that Apple App Store has generated $4.9 billion in gross sales since inception with 14% of total app downloads being paid applications.

In terms of average selling price, Munster suggests that Android phone users pay more for a single app, but download fewer paid apps overall. The top 50 paid apps in Android Market have an average selling price of $3.79, compared to $2.01 on Apple’s App Store.

The latest study one again validates the supremacy of iPad and iPhone app developers in mobile app development. One of the key reasons for the popularity of iOS platform is the monetization opportunities it offers to iPad and iPhone developers. While  it is expected that Android will surpass Apple app store in future, however it is to be seen whether it would be able to match the revenue generation potential of the latter.

Source- AppleInsider

Cupertino based technology giant Apple has released 3rd iTunes 10.5.1 Beta to iOS app developers. The latest update on iTunes includes many key stability and performance improvements for Apple iTunes Match. The iPhone maker has deleted iTunes Match libraries in iCloud recently as part of its preparation to launch iTunes Match.

The iTunes Match was slated to release in late October but has been postponed and the current communiqué from Apple to iPad and iPhone developers suggest that the company is preparing for the public release of iTunes. No clear date has been announced yet but it is believed that the release can be imminent.

Apple’s iTunes Match is a $25 per year subscription service that allows you to store your music collection in iCloud and access it anywhere, anytime on your Apple device.

Deutsche Telekom’s developer platform-Developer Garden- has releases a Software Development Kit (SDK) for iPad and iPhone app developers. The new SDK will make it easier for iPhone developers to integrate Deutsche Telekom services into apps for the iPhone and iPad.

The new Objective-C SDK, will make it simpler for iOS app developers to build iPhone and iPad applications on the Developer Garden APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). The SDK offers complete English-language documentation and a range of sample applications for the individual APIs. It simplifies application programming and enables routine iPhone app development tasks like authenticating and processing messages with the server. It also enables app developers to perform tasks like integrating the AutoScout24 market place, integrating text & MMS messaging functions, and initiating telephone conferences etc., with relative ease.

The newly released Objective-C SDK is compatible to iOS 5. The Xcode 4 development environment allows app developers to try out the sample applications using the emulator.

Cloud service provider, Box has recently announced new platform updates with API libraries for iOS and Android operating system and two new sets of API methods concentrated on collaboration and social capabilities. The company also announced Box Mobile Dev Challenge for app developers to build powerful enterprise apps leveraging the company’s APIs.

“Explosive mobile adoption in the enterprise is creating new demand for mobile applications focused on solving business problems,” said Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of Box.
“This innovation is not going to come from legacy software vendors, which have been slow to embrace mobility and even slower to embrace true openness. At Box, we’re investing aggressively in building a powerful open platform that developers can easily tap into to create killer apps for today’s mobile workforce,” he added.

Box will release a Java code library for Android and update its Objective-C library for iOS development which will allow app developers to add Box functionality to their apps more easily and include the collaboration benefits of Box with features such as uploading, downloading, sharing, commenting, tagging, search and version history.

The new collaboration API methods allow users to share and edit content from their mobile device. It will also allow app developers invite and manage collaborators in addition to viewing connections.

The Box Mobile Developer Challenge will run till September 9, 2011. The challenge is open for app developers around the world and offers $50K in cash and prizes, including $25,000 for the top application, $5,000 of InMobi mobile ad network credits, HP TouchPads, and an opportunity to a pitch meeting with Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

According to report by Media Guardian, international Android and iOS app developers are removing their applications from US versions of Apple’s App Store and Google’s Android Market, fearing patent file suits against them. Off late, there have been instances where app developers have been served notices for patent infringements.

Lodsys has sued many app developers for its in-app purchasing model. Similarly, MacroSolve, a company asserting a patent related to data collection by mobile devices, for transmission to a central server. Last week, Kootol Software, sent notices to several platform providers, and developers, for a technology used in their apps which Kootol said it holds exclusive patent rights for.

Many Android and iOS app developers are of the opinion that doing app business in US with such serious concerns is not viable particularly when app business in the country has reached non-viable tipping point.

Source- www.mobilebusinessbriefing.com

San Francisco-based User Analytics company, Kontagent has announced its kSuite Enterprise analytics platform will now support iOS and Android apps. The new offering will bring user-centric behavioral analysis and optimization capabilities Android and iOS app developers looking to build more engaging applications and ultimately boost their revenues.

Kontagent’s kSuite will offer competitive advantages such as complete data ownership, unlimited data handling, full SDK library support, custom event tagging and user behavioral analytics etc., to Android and iOS app developers.

“With the launch of fully integrated mobile support for iOS and Android, we can now serve a huge segment of mobile developers that need a fully dedicated enterprise analytics solution to understand and respond to their users in a fragmented ecosystem,” says CEO and co-founder Jeffrey Tseng.

“Unlike other solutions providers who sell mobile analytics as part of their broader offering, we are 100% focused on building the best Enterprise-level User Analytics for application developers and others within the organization, and our business model supports it,” he added.

Leading mobile performance ad networks, Moolah Media, is set to announce a fund for android and iPhone developers who use its solutions. Moolah Media’s App.Suite and Mob.Suite solutions will help developers who have difficulty monetizing their users.
“Legacy forms of mobile advertising are broken,” said Shawn Scheuer, CEO and co-founder of Moolah Media.

“Developers and publishers are often overpaying to acquire new users that may use their site or app only once. Moolah’s new monetization tools provide immediate monetization to cover acquisition costs and allow for follow on monetization that translates into pure profit. Best of all, the new ad units within App.Suite and Mob.Suite are effective at monetizing the 95 percent of users that do not make direct payments,” he added.

Moolah Media is also offering an added 33% payout, up to $3 million, for all new android and iPhone developers that use Mob.Suite or App.Suite. Developers have to create an account with the ad network to download the desired SDK.